THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Every business wants to grow. We all want our brand to increase its visibility, generate more leads, and ultimately get more conversions. This means engaging every available platform that has the potential to give us this desired result. That is where social media comes in. Gone are the days when social media was once considered a fleeting trend that distracted kids with nothing. Recently, social media has become one of the most powerful tools for marketing. So, if you're looking to tap into its immense potential to help your business, here’s the ultimate guide to social media marketing. Enjoy! 

The ultimate guide to social media marketing

In your quest for the definitive guide to social media marketing, you must accept that you won’t master the knowledge overnight. This can be hard to know because we live in an age where everything happens at the speed of light, and we have become used to that. We prefer fast food, pay extra for faster delivery, and engage in speed dating. 

However, some things take time, and mastery of social media marketing is one of them. In fact, taking a plunge into it without fully understanding its nitty-gritty can hurt your business more than it helps it. So you must be patient and bide your time as you learn it. Nonetheless, we have some tips for you below that will help you make the right decision when considering the best social media marketing strategy to adopt. But first, let us explain some basic terms you need to know to help you make an informed decision.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a form of marketing that exploits the potential of social media platforms to connect with the target audience, increase your brand's reach, and meet the target branding and marketing goals. However, it's not as simple as having a business account for your brand and posting randomly. Social media marketing involves a dynamic and ever-evolving strategy that has quantifiable goals. It involves;

• Creating, optimizing, and maintaining your profile
• Regularly posting videos (pre-recorded and live), pictures, and stories representing your business and pulling a target audience.
• Monitoring your brand's reputation and regularly responding to shares, comments, and likes on your account.
• Building a community around the brand
• Regularly engaging your followers and customers
• Optimizing social media ads, content creators, and online influencers to allow your brand to appear on several target audiences’ FYP.

Social media marketing strategy

A social media marketing strategy is a plan that outlines all your goals and targets, the roadmap you intend to implement to achieve these goals, and the metrics that will enable you to evaluate your progress. The goals should have components specific to each social media platform, but they should all align with an overarching goal. Also, each team member's roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined within the marketing strategy.

We highly recommend that your strategy should have a time frame that will allow you to track your progress. You can be flexible with any strategy you come up with; however, ensure that it can be achieved within the time frame you have allotted to it. For example, you can decide to post twice a week, put out Instagram ads once a week, host giveaways once a month, etc. The overall factor that determines your strategy is what you aim to achieve with your social media account.

How to do social media marketing

Here are ten steps on how to engage in social media marketing effectively.

1.  Identify your target audience
2. Define your targets and goals 
3. Apportion your resources judiciously
4. Use several platforms
5. Post apt content regularly
6. Engage with followers
7. Always keep things professional
8. Reflect your business’ identity always
9. Prioritize the quality of your posts over the quantity
10. Evaluate your results

Choosing a social media strategy can be quite an easy task, but carrying out those strategies can be daunting. This is because the workload that comes with managing a social media account alongside your business is heinous. A solution to this is to make use of social media marketing tools to help make the work easier. Here are some tools to try out.

Social media marketing tools

No matter how good your strategy is, the results may be disappointing if you don’t use social media marketing tools. By now, you know that social media marketing is a very potent marketing strategy, but that’s only if you arm yourself with an arsenal of high-powered tools. An array of tools is now available on the market, each offering one innovative edge or another. However, these tools can be broadly categorized based on what they do. Some of these classifications include;

Social media lead generation tools

These are software that aids in capturing quality leads and stimulating them towards conversion. They help you determine who is interested in your brand, so you can engage and ultimately convert them. Examples include Woorise and LeadFeeder. 

Social media scheduling tools

It can be mentally draining when you have to keep switching from one social media platform to another to carry out the tasks required for each. Moreso, it can also be time-consuming. That’s why social media scheduling tools come in handy. With such tools, you can schedule every post you intend to upload for the day and track them across all platforms. They also make working with a bigger team much more effortless.

Social media analytics tools

Social media engagement tools

Engagement is central to every attempt toward building brand visibility. Social media engagement tools help you monitor engagements in your social media profiles. With this, you can boost your brand’s responsiveness and overall efficiency. For example, they let you know when your profile mentions are experiencing a sharp surge.

Social media automation tools

These tools help the marketing strategy by having some tasks handled by automation software. With these tools, there’s too much focus on automation, which can adversely affect marketing. Instead, let the automation handle tasks that are repetitive and which won’t compromise user experience if automated.

FAQ

What are the 5 P’s of social media marketing?

There’s no such thing as the 5 P’s of social media marketing. However, there are 5 P's of marketing: Product, Price, People, Place, and Promotion. They serve as a structure that guides marketing through social media. They help the marketing team focus on the necessary things.

What is the golden rule of social media marketing?

There’s no one golden rule to social media marketing. However, communication ranks among the most important. The key to maximizing this rule is not throwing adverts at your target audience; instead, try communicating with them. A transparent and genuine post on social media will gain your trust over time.

What is the ultimate goal of social media marketing?

Social media marketing aims to create quality leads, boost traffic to your website, or generate sales. It also creates brand awareness and builds a relationship with customers.

Conclusion

As you implement the ultimate guide to social media marketing in this article, we’re sure it’ll set your brand on a course of growth. And while it may take time, don’t forget that nothing good comes easy. We’re rooting for your business.